Salaguti House Museum
A most rustic poster in the Sasamon downtown, a town of barely a thousand inhabitants in the province of Burgos , makes it very clear: just three kilometers away is the Salaguti House-Museum . Three kilometers that pass along a path that escapes from the urbanized area to enter the Castilian landscape.
There, on top of a hill and with views to infinity, we glimpse our destiny.
Sasamón town
There is nothing that can prepare us for what we are about to find. The lair of a genius, perhaps, would be the best way to describe it. A authentic Salaguti universe – literally, we will explain it to you later – in which time stops and everything acquires a different meaning.
Okay, maybe you still don't understand what we're talking about, but be patient. You will soon understand.
Carlos Salazar Gutierrez , alias Salaguti, is a self-taught artist from Sasamón, this small town in Burgos. When, while still a student, the entrance doors to the Superior School of Fine Arts of San Fernando, in Madrid , he decided that this would not be an obstacle for his career.
He was very clear: he had an artist inside. And, letting his creative impulse will take over, he got carried away.
Detail of the railing of the house-museum of Salaguti
Self-taught in the art world, nobody would say, when he parks his car next to the peculiar house-museum, that what he has before him has been the product of his imagination alone. Although, what other explanation could there be for a building whose facade, a mixture of surrealism and abstract art , is a real artist self portrait ?
It is time to knock on the door. Hopefully, -and it's quite normal-, It will be Salaguti himself who welcomes us and invites us to discover his own universe. And now it all makes sense.
Going through the doors of his house-museum is to understand a little what happens in that creative mind. For some, his work could remind a little of Dalí, but also Gaudí. It could have brushstrokes of Picasso, Klee or Munch . Or maybe it's an explosive cocktail in which all of them are mixed.
Namely, the reality is that Salaguti's work is unique, and that is understood as soon as one walks through the different rooms of the building.
Salaguti House Museum
The idea of universe is not long in being understood. And it is that the dome that covers this house-museum is, precisely, the representation of the cosmos, of space. With its planets and stars orbiting, of course.
Around it, sculptures and paintings created by himself decorate the space. Impossible shapes but full of charisma star in every corner. The most diverse styles are reflected in his canvases, some half-finished on some easel lost around the house.
We go up to the first floor and we are surprised by a railing in which there are faces – literally – made of the same stone that seem to be trying to escape from the material. Plastic expressiveness invades everything and takes shape. The overhead lighting, which passes through the hole in the highest part of the dome, somehow reminds us of the Pantheon of Agrippa.
This is Salaguti in all the glory of it.
The famous railing of the museum house of Salaguti
The artist himself is the one who accompanies us during the visit and explains every detail. He answers each question, and while he does so, we are aware that the ideas crowd his head in the same way that they later take physical form. We don't know what fascinates us more , whether his work or the Salaguti of flesh and blood.
He then tells us how, after traveling and spending years in cities like Paris, He decided to return to his origins, taking advantage of the land inherited from a great-aunt, to unleash his creativity.
His work is distributed throughout much of Spain -and Europe-: commissions that today form part of private collections. He also has some other civil works: fountains, busts or memorials. All of them have a very clear stamp: his style, defined by himself as fantastic surrealist , is the best firm.
Among dozens of unfinished projects we discover the paintings and acrylics, the chisels and materials with which his creations come to life. Salaguti is sincere: he never knew what he wanted to do, he just got carried away. And all this is the result of what has been emerging.
Remains of the medieval past of Sasamón
He affirms that he never loses the need to continue creating because that means that he continues to lengthen his training. And although the Salaguti House-Museum is his culminating work, he still dreams of what is to come. A purpose? Make a gigantic work that is practical. Something will come up...
We said goodbye to Salaguti at the door. As we get into the car we see him, already with a lost look, thinking about who knows what. Perhaps he has found the idea he is looking for. With that dream to fulfill.
What is clear is that whatever you do, Salaguti will remain forever in the landscape of Burgos. And that, he hears him, already has its merit.
Salaguti workshop